The Consequences of What That Senate Staffer Did in That Hearing Room

By Jim Geraghty

Monday, December 18, 2023

 

How important is the story of that legislative aide to Maryland Democratic senator Ben Cardin, filming himself having sex in the Hart Senate Office Building hearing room?

 

Politico‘s Playbook helpfully explains, “The, um, action takes place on the dais — right between where Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) were sitting at a recent Senate Judiciary Committee markup, in case you were wondering.”

 

(Now you understand that tweet from Representative Mike Collins of Georgia.)

 

Read to the end before furiously commenting, please. Eh, who am I kidding, some of you jumped to the comments section three sentences ago.

 

No, it’s not important: A few days ago, you had never heard of this guy, and in a week, you won’t remember his name. Capitol Hill has about 12,500 legislative staffers, and someone in that group must be the dumbest one of them all. Many of those staffers are young and have more political passion than good sense. Every staff director in just about every organization has some “you would not believe what this intern did” story; this is just the most egregious example of a young, dumb staffer who has no clue about what is acceptable. The staffer has been fired.

 

It’s an ugly story, but not particularly consequential.

 

Yes, it is important: It is hard to imagine an act that communicates more contempt for that room, what happens there, your boss, or the Senate as a whole. Doing something like that is basically begging to get fired, and yes, that violates the laws of the District of Columbia.

 

It reminded me of the breast-exposing trans social-media influencer at that White House event in June:

 

Perhaps we shouldn’t feel just anger at Montoya; perhaps this demonstration of egregiously narcissistic behavior warrants some pity. It appears no one ever taught this person why certain places are to be treated with reverence and cannot be treated like the Playboy mansion or Bourbon Street in New Orleans during Mardi Gras or any other location of raucous debauchery. There are times and places in this life where the rules — written and unwritten — must take priority over your own impulses and desires. There is a reason that some religious sites ask you to remove your hats and other religious sites ask you to cover your heads. It is a demonstration of the attendee’s recognition that, “This place is different, this place is significant, and this place is associated with a power or institution or being that is more important than what I want at any given moment.”

 

There is a reason why, in karate, the participants bow before stepping into the dojo. There is a reason why Catholics cross themselves with holy water upon entering church. There is a reason why men, including gentile guests, are asked to wear a kippah or yarmulke when they enter a synagogue. (Yes, pedants, some houses of worship are more stringent or laid back than others.)

 

You do these things as a sign of respect, an acknowledgment that there is something greater than you that must be recognized and honored. Without that, you’re just some guy, just an animal with appetites.

 

The U.S. Senate is not a sacred space, but it is an important place, one that attempts to do its work with some tiny remaining shred of dignity and decorum. It’s why there was so much pushback to the proposal to eliminate the dress code.

 

If you’re buck naked, using the Senate hearing room to make pornography, you hate the place. You hold it in a seething contempt that makes the January 6 rioters look easygoing and well-adjusted by comparison.

 

Which brings us to another problem. Cardin’s statement is awfully milquetoast; you must wonder if lawyers are telling him to say as little as possible. Cardin’s carefully worded statement suggests that he just wants the matter to go away and be forgotten.

 

But the heinous act happened, it was recorded on video, and it was posted to the internet. We cannot close our eyes and pretend it didn’t happen. If any staffer anywhere has ever earned an angry public denunciation to go along with a firing, it’s this fool.

 

The idiot is also attempting to portray himself as a victim of homophobia, claiming he’s “being attacked for who I love to pursue a political agenda.” He is contending that he’s not wrong for doing it, and you’re the villain in this story for objecting to it.

 

The 80-year-old Cardin is retiring at the end of his term next year. If Cardin can’t bring himself to say anything else, he probably ought to retire now. It’s as if he’s not there.